El Arco & Lover’s Beach Boat Tours

At some of them, and the difference matters. The Pacific side has almost no continental shelf: the bottom drops away metres from the waterline and the shore break carries full ocean energy, which makes Divorce Beach, Playa Solmar and most of the west coast unsafe all year, however inviting they look. The sheltered Sea of Cortez bays are fine — Médano in Cabo San Lucas, Chileno and Santa María in the Corridor, and Lover’s Beach.

The official season runs 15 December to 15 April, with January to March the most consistent. Outside those months a whale trip is a boat trip with a chance. These are wild animals and nobody can guarantee them; where a sightings guarantee is offered it means a free second trip, not a refund. Mexican rules keep boats at a distance and forbid entering the water, so nobody here may legally offer a swim with a humpback.

They are 33 kilometres apart and not alike. Cabo San Lucas is the marina, the bars, the cruise pier and the departure point for nearly every boat trip. San José del Cabo is the older town — mission church, colonial streets, galleries and a Thursday Art Walk from November to June — and the airport is on that side. Between them runs the Corridor with the swimmable bays. Most tours pick up along all three.

Only by water. Land’s End has no road, so the arch, Lover’s Beach and the sea lion colony are reachable by boat, kayak or paddleboard and no other way. Note that most tours only sail past: if you want to stand on the sand, the water taxi is the format that sets you down. The sandbar that sometimes appears under the arch at low tide is not a landing spot and authorities warn against it.

Good, not outstanding, and it is worth knowing why. The sheltered bays have rock reef and plenty of fish, which is what the 69 snorkelling offers here go to — Pelican Rock, Chileno and Santa María. What they do not have is living hard coral. For that, Cabo Pulmo is the place, a protected national park about ninety minutes north-east by road, and it is genuinely better. Water is coolest January to March.

Because the market is built for direct flights from the United States and Canada, and the hotel rates set the level for everything else. Across the 240 offers we compare, the median sits around four times the cheapest entry — a short glass-bottom run past the arch is cheap, the same coastline on a catamaran with an open bar is not. The one reliable way to spend less is to take the short boat trips and skip the open bar.